The Friday Face-Off: First Fantasy Book

The Friday Face-Off was created by Books by Proxy, where each week bloggers can showcase books with covers centered around a weekly theme. You can visit Lynn’s Books for a list of upcoming themes. Join in the fun each Friday by finding a book whose cover is based on the theme!

This week’s theme: First fantasy book.


I don’t actually remember my first fantasy book? But I do remember a fairly early one so let’s go with that. The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart was the first time I realized just how powerful fantasy could be. I was enchanted by this Arthurian tale of Merlin’s origin story, and I believe I also read the sequel, The Hollow Hills. The book was originally published in 1970 so there are a lot of covers to choose from. Here are some of them:

Eos edition 2003 | William Morrow edition 1970 | UK edition 2012

Fawcett edition 1971 | Hodder edition (UK) 2006 | Portuguese edition 2002

Hodder edition 1970 | Coronet Books edition 1980 | French edition 2007

German edition 1998 | Portuguese edition 2017 | Spanish edition 1995

There are a lot of very classic, old school fantasy designs in this bunch! I’m very nostalgic about the 1971 Fawcett edition, because that is the one I read (although probably not in 1971, lol). But the cover that really draws my attention is the 2002 Portuguese edition, that’s my favorite:

Which one is your favorite? Have you read The Crystal Cave?

Posted May 14, 2021 by Tammy in The Friday Face-Off / 11 Comments


11 responses to “The Friday Face-Off: First Fantasy Book

  1. My fave is the 2017 Portuguese edition. I wonder why Portuguese editions keep turning up on my fave covers. Hm, maybe it’s a particular, popular Portuguese cover artist.

  2. As soon as you said it’s an Arthurian legend tale and that you loved it, I added it to my Goodreads! Haha! Also, I think my favourite is the 1971 Fawcett edition! I love those oldie covers!

  3. I’ve not heard of this book but it certainly has a lot of covers. I’m also drawn to the Portuguese one this week.
    Lynn 😀

  4. I’ll pick the first cover, the Eos 2003 edition, though the one you picked is a close second for me. I’ve never read this one, but I do think I’ve heard folks talk about it. I think my first fantasy book was The Elfstones of Shannara followed soon after by The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

  5. The Portuguese cover is my favorite too! And I honestly can’t remember which SFF book was my gateway book. I’m not talking all those folktales/ fairytales into account… so possibly Mollie Hunter’s The Haunted Mountain.

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